The present invention relates generally to light system controllers, and more particularly, to a system and method for controlling a light system with a light condition recorder.
Light systems can be generally divided by function into task lighting and ambient lighting. Task lighting is designed to meet the needs of specific tasks, such as reading or applying makeup. Ambient lighting is designed to provide a general ambience or mood within an area. Problems arise when switching between task lighting and ambient lighting. Typically, a number of lamps must be switched individually to change from one to the other, such as when switching from lighting for reading alone to lighting for a social gathering. The user must remember appropriate lighting settings and make a number of adjustments. Even with sophisticated lighting systems employing remote controls, the user must locate a dedicated remote control, which is often missing or misplaced.
Accurate task lighting is critical for certain activities, such as dressing and applying makeup. Typically, dressing areas with mirrors have limited lighting control, if any. At best, the user is able to dim the lights. The problem is that lighting parameters, such as intensity, color temperature, and spectral distribution, influence the visual perception of people's skin tone, applied makeup, and color combinations in their clothes. Pastel makeup is unnoticeable under dimmed lighting, which is one of the reasons why ‘evening makeup’ is usually made in bright colors. The impossibility of simulating different lighting conditions in the dressing area or at the makeup mirror often leads to problems: a chosen color combination that looked fine at home is often jarring at the disco or the office. Another problem of the inability of simulating the lighting conditions of the place the user is going is that the user is unable to get into the mood of the destination. Without the appropriate lighting, combined with appropriate music and even fragrance, the user is unable to recreate the ambience of the occasion to prepare both physically and mentally.
It would be desirable to have a light condition recorder system and method that would overcome the above disadvantages.